“Johnny will train fully on Thursday, when we’ll try to ramp the training up a little bit, and our expectation is that he will get through that without any problems at all.

“He’s very confident, the medical staff are confident, and so are we.”

It does not look good for lock Iain Henderson though, who is set to miss the whole tournament after sustaining a finger injury in Ulster’s win over Leicester. The same applies to Tadhg Beirne, who will almost certainly miss the first two matches.

“Iain could potentially make the last two weekends, maybe the last weekend. That would be quite tight,” said Schmidt.

“Tadhg Beirne, on the other hand, should possibly make the third weekend and definitely the last two weekends.

“I feel bad for both of them. Iain Henderson, six weeks out, comes back with a man-of-the-match performance and back out again. A really unlucky injury.

“Same with Tadhg Beirne, he’s been so robust, so resilient, he’s played a lot of match minutes in the last three years. He was going really well in that game, got a couple of fantastic turnovers and then to pick up an injury is really disappointing for him.”

The importance of Sexton

There’s no denying just how vital Sexton is to Ireland’s hopes of retaining the Six Nations crown, but question marks will remain over how match-fit he is after missing the last four weeks. Schmidt is adamant that he’ll have Sexton available but what exactly does he bring to the side?

During the 2018 Six Nations, Sexton scored a total of 44 points to help Ireland on their way to a third ever Grand Slam and was nothing short of influential in every game. Fearless, brave and an all-round leader, Sexton is Schmidt’s on-field lieutenant who is one of rugby union’s greatest ever no. 10’s.

Last year alone, Sexton helped Ireland to their first series win over Australia for 39 years and was part of the side who was victorious over New Zealand for the first ever time on home soil. At club level, Sexton helped Leinster to win the Guinness Pro14 and European Champions Cup titles which further demonstrates just how good a player he is.

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